CHAPTER 10I-Know-What-You-Are-Thinking Stories
PEOPLE NEED TO feel safe. So we make up stories to cast new information about “one more damn thing to do” in a cynical light. We don’t come out and say, “I’ve already decided this is hogwash,” but we are often thinking it. It is a delightful surprise for you to mirror someone’s secret suspicions in a story without sounding defensive. It is much easier to overcome an objection before it hardens into a position. An I-Know-What-You-Are-Thinking story overcomes objections when they are still soft—merely a “sneaking suspicion.” You don’t have to read minds. Unspoken objections are easy to anticipate, particularly if you research your audience’s point of view.
When a union representative meets with a manager ...
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